Lighten up! With Bong Wizard

“It all starts with a song title,” explains Thomas Meeks, the drummer for Bong Wizard, who played at Aces High Saloon on July 1. The stoner doom, Houston-based band is a trio made up of Justin Liles (founding member on guitar and vocals), Meeks (drums) and Ronnie Spera (bass and vocals). Their Salt Lake City show was part of a West Coast tour promoting their new album, Transylvanian Munchies, whose name is a parody of the 1994 black metal album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone. As Liles explains, “The parody is just one brush stroke of the whole art … it’s the parody, it’s the music, it’s the cover, it’s the way we present it.”   

While the unseriousness of Bong Wizard’s song titles and album covers draws people in, the trio’s eclectic musical palate and seasoned background keep the audience captivated. Spera’s roots are in punk, 90s grunge and a childhood diet of classic rock. He brings this and 20+ years as a bassist to Bong Wizard. Liles and Meeks, on the other hand, have closer roots to Bong Wizard’s genre. They first played death metal together in high school. “We will not be supplying any photographs,” Liles notes. Meeks and Liles then worked independently as sound engineers for many years, producing music from different styles. Liles continued to play doom, while Meeks took a hiatus from metal to DJ drum and bass Dubstep. Meeks explains, “It kind of ties in with metal because it gets heavy, just like metal does.” On their mixed history with music, Liles notes, “I think that lends to how diverse Bong Wizard’s music is. It doesn’t just sit in one lane. It moves around, and you can hear all of our influences in it for sure.”

Bong Wizard started after Liles and Meeks produced a well-received, kitchen-recorded album in 2023. This led to a tour in Montana where they needed a bassist, so Liles hit up Spera. Spera explains, “I used to work at Denny’s, a graveyard shift, and everyone would come … people would tip me in weed … that was back when Denny’s had a smoking section.” Liles adds, “[Spera] would let me pour vodka into the to-go cup.” Spera joined, and the band hit the road. Since the start, Bong Wizard has taken a lax approach to creation. Meeks shares, “This is the only band I’ve ever been in where we don’t overthink the music.” The group also notes their solid crew and open communication as aspects that make playing fun. Regarding their song’s comedic storytelling, Liles explains, “You have to have parody, because that’s the one way we’re allowed to deal with our suffering, you know?”

Bong Wizard’s lyrics come from the weed-realm. “We often just get on these tangents in our … group Messenger, where we’re just … throwing out stupid ideas and we’re like, that’s just way too clever to not do something with,” Liles says. Spera adds, “There’s a lot of seriousness in this world … but you have to lighten up as well, you know? And being a weed-themed band is all about lightening up and being laid back and shit—” Liles interjects, “or lighting up,”  and the trio laughs.

After acts from SLC’s local GRGL and Simian, Bong Wizard’s show opened under green lights as smoke curled from bong columns on either end of the stage, bringing to life the stoner metal world from which their music rises. “I mean, we’re a band called Bong Wizard, you know? You can’t take that too seriously,” Liles says. Meeks adds, “It’s kind of like relief from real life, which is what music should be, right?”

Get a heavy relief and check out Transylvania Munchies on Band Camp or thrash to a live show at Aces High Saloon soon.  

Read more music interviews here:
For the Record: The World Record Interview
The Alchemy of Healing: Logan James Hope on Growth and Moving Forward

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